Firewall Protection And Content Filtering; Using Rules To Block Or Allow Specific Kinds Of Traffic - NETGEAR ProSafe Quad WAN FR538G Reference Manual

Chapter 4

Firewall Protection and Content Filtering

This chapter describes how to use the content filtering features of the ProSafe Quad WAN Gigabit
Firewall to protect your network. These features can be found by selecting Security from the main
menu and selecting Block Sites from the submenu of the browser interface.
About Firewall Protection and Content Filtering
The ProSafe Quad WAN Gigabit Firewall provides you with Web content filtering options, plus
browsing activity reporting and instant alerts via e-mail. Parents and network administrators can
establish restricted access policies based on time-of-day, Web addresses and Web address
keywords. You can also block Internet access by applications and services, such as chat or games.
A firewall is a special category of router that protects one network (the "trusted" network, such as
your LAN) from another (the untrusted network, such as the Internet), while allowing
communication between the two. You can further segment keyword blocking to certain known
groups (see "Configuring Port Mirror" on page 3-6 to set up LAN Groups).
A firewall incorporates the functions of a NAT (Network Address Translation) router, while
adding features for dealing with a hacker intrusion or attack, and for controlling the types of traffic
that can flow between the two networks. Unlike simple Internet sharing NAT routers, a firewall
uses a process called stateful packet inspection to protect your network from attacks and
intrusions. NAT performs a very limited stateful inspection in that it considers whether the
incoming packet is in response to an outgoing request, but true Stateful Packet Inspection goes far
beyond NAT.

Using Rules to Block or Allow Specific Kinds of Traffic

Firewall rules are used to block or allow specific traffic passing through from one side to the other.
Inbound rules (WAN to LAN) restrict access by outsiders to private resources, selectively allowing
only specific outside users to access specific resources. Outbound rules (LAN to WAN) determine
what outside resources local users can have access to.
Firewall Protection and Content Filtering 4-1
v1.0, November 2007